a week of actual lunch
with mini recipes throughout!
Hi all! I thought I’d shake things up a little bit this week. Instead of a normal Tuesday lunch-themed recipe, I’m sharing ‘a week of actual lunch’ in the same spirit as this newsletter about dinner (and this recent one, too!).
My hope is that it’s fun to see (I love these sorts of diaries when other people share them!) and also helpful — there are many mini-recipes throughout.
Okay, here goes nothing - everything I ate for lunch last week (Monday - Friday)!
MONDAY
The day before I taught a class about chickpeas (it’s available here in my video library). I had lots of chopped chickpea salad with tahini dressing leftover (it included halved cherry tomatoes, diced cucumbers, sliced radishes, and chopped parsley and the dressing was just equal parts tahini, olive oil, fresh lemon juice + boiling water). So I had that topped with an olive/feta salad from Adams (my favorite local grocery store). I also had some thinly sliced turkey breast that I had cooked on Sunday.
There was a boneless turkey breast on sale at Adams so I bought it, seasoned it with paprika and garlic powder and threw it in my Instant Pot with about a cup of water. I cooked it at high pressure for 20 minutes, then let the pressure naturally release. After it cooled down, I put it in a container in the fridge so we could slice it and add to it whatever we wanted throughout the week. Grace seemed to really like it, which I consider a win!
TUESDAY
I finished the rest of the chickpea salad with more of the olive/feta salad on top. I made a quick batch of couscous which is just so fast and easy and nice when you want something like a little pasta or rice but don’t feel like waiting for it to cook (I put it in a bowl, pour an equal amount of boiling water on top, cover the bowl with a plate, let it sit for 5 minutes, then fluff it with a fork).
When I went to pick up a bagel in the morning at Saunderskill, they had some of their homegrown asparagus for sale so I bought a small bunch, blanched it in a little salted boiling water and let it rest on a towel to absorb excess water. I drizzled it with a little olive oil and seasoned it with a pinch of flaky Maldon salt. Heaven!
I also had a tiny bit of leftover chicken Francese that I had made the night before — just cold from the fridge! You can find my recipe in What Goes with What or here via Joy the Baker.
WEDNESDAY
Okay, this photo ^ is actually what I had for dinner on Wednesday, not lunch. I actually went out for a fancy, very fun lunch with my parents in NYC (at Le Veau d’Or, where it’s much easier to get a reservation for lunch than it is for dinner!). But I didn’t have anything useful to say about cooking from that lunch, so I thought I’d share what I had for dinner when I got home instead. The rest of last week’s Chickpea + Cauliflower Curry with Coconut Milk with some chopped kale folded in while it heated up, topped with plain yogurt and lots of cilantro, plus the rest of the couscous. So good!
THURSDAY
I was on a writing roll so I wanted something quick and easy that I could eat at my desk. A ham + jam sandwich to the rescue! I spread one side of halved baguette with some of this delicious marinated feta cheese (it’s very soft!), then spread the other side with raspberry jam. I added a few slices of ham. Truly delicious. Sweet and salty!!
FRIDAY
This ^ is actually a photo of part 2 of a 2 part lunch. The first was a slice of pizza on my home from helping out at Long Season Farm for most of the morning. Once I got home and took off my muddy boots, I warmed up a microwaveable container of brown rice (like one of these) and topped it with toasted sesame seeds and a splash of soy sauce. I sliced a small cucumber and diced half an avocado and drizzled those with this Deep-Roasted Sesame Dressing (it’s so good). I also polished off leftover eggplant from the night before.
To make that, I cut a large eggplant into cubes, sprayed them with olive oil spray and air-fried them at 400°F until they were browned all over, 15 minutes total with a few stirs along the way. Meanwhile, I stir-fried a thinly sliced red onion in a little oil until it was softened and kind-of charred around the edges. I added the eggplant to the pan along with about 3 handfuls of chopped kale. I splashed about 2 teaspoons of fish sauce on top, squeezed over the juice of a lime, and also added a squeeze of Mike’s Hot Honey (maybe 2 teaspoons of that total?). I let that all cook, stirring pretty constantly, until the kale was wilted, which took all of maybe two minutes. I turned off the heat, stirred in a lot of roughly chopped cilantro and seasoned it all with salt and lots of black pepper. SO GOOD!
What are you having for lunch today? Anything you particularly loved for lunch last week? Tell me!!!
No pay-walled recipe this week! But if you’re aching for a way to support this newsletter, consider become a paid subscriber today! You get a weekly recipe on Tuesdays and a long list of notes/variations/riffs, plus the ability to comment.
Let me just get that button for you….here it is!
xoxoxoox, Julia
Can I help you find something useful?!
Here’s my video library with 125 cooking classes!
Here’s my all-time favorite class: a tour of my kitchen and also my mind! It includes a 2+ hour recording and an incredibly detailed companion document that details all of the tools, ingredients + more I use (it's over 20 pages long!), plus a ton of tips for day-to-day cooking (lots of mini recipes within).
Check out my ShopMy page for my favorite kitchen tools, ingredients, and even clothing items — it’s all there!
And I catalog all of my favorite books right here at bookshop.org.
One of my favorite lunches is a chickpea wrap! I drain a can of chickpeas, dry them with a paper towel, and then lightly crisp them in a cast iron skillet with paprika and olive oil and s&p. From there, I have two versions I like to make:
1) Chickpea Caesar
This is my go-to salad dressing for all occasions and it’s great in a wrap: https://minimalistbaker.com/chickpea-caesar-salad/ (I do 3-4 garlic cloves though) I’ll also do some chopped lettuce and bell pepper, maybe avocado if I have one, and either some grated pecorino Romano or a piece of whatever cheese I have in the cheese drawer
2) Buffalo chickpea
I mix Buffalo sauce with chopped lettuce, the chickpeas, chopped celery, and bleu cheese
Both are truly so good especially with a side of chips! And the vegan caesar keeps for days in the fridge so I can prep it in advance and then day-of wrap assembly is so fast! I just use whatever basic flour tortillas I have on hand.
This all sounds so delicious!! Though right now I'm eating an extremely thick slice (1.5-inch at least) of toast (my mother-in-law made King Arthur white bread) with peanut butter and an ungodly amount of flaky salt. We're flying home today from New Jersey and I always try to keep things simple on travel days. But really, can you beat fresh bread with PB and salt???